Letters: Pariah Politics (March 2000)

This Web page is a part of the Letters column, wherein readers of the Navigator can correspond with the authors of its articles.

The following letter is in response to "Pariah Politics" by Roger Donway, which appeared in the March 2000 issue of Navigator.

To the Editor:

I'm not very happy, to say the least, with your article on Pariah Politics.

I'm an Objectivist and a Belgian lawyer specializing in Eec law. I'm fed up with the Leftists' policies in my country and willing to have a lot more economic freedom than now. In short, like Ayn Rand, I'm in favor of a capitalist society. And, I'm tired of the old-boy network and corruption of the Left and the Right.

But, please, if European politicians made Mr. Haider a pariah, I'm very happy of it. He is not somebody "who is a panderer to people who have never come to terms with Austria's participation in the Nazi horrors" and a clean, careful politician with "natural charm."

He equate Winston Churchill and Adolf Hitler as two war criminals. The F.P.O., his party, was expelled from the European or the International Liberal Organization, encompassing all classical liberal parties. Why? In part because in his election for chairmanship, Jörg Haider's supporters were wearing, as "a joke," Adolf Hitler's photo, I confess, I didn't see it. It's only a report from a preeminent Belgian Liberal politician.

Furthermore, I don't see any wrong with the creation of a political and economic European Union, having a single market, a common currency, a common foreign affairs and a defense policy. Of course, the policies in the European Union are far from a classical liberal ideal. But, European policy usually means a more liberal policy, more economic freedom, a more open market. I support it. And the "masses" who are against it are nationalists and illiberals from the Left and the Right.

Lastly, the European Convention of Human Rights is a "Bill of Rights." Not just what I would have written but it is a rememdy against the Member States' wrongdoing: Torture in a Police Department, imprisonment for a long term, military trials, the impossibility of changing your name if you are a transsexual, and soon. Could we really be against such decisions.

After two world wars, the European construction was based on one wish-Never again-and one belief: Peace in Europe based on political and economic freedom. Jörg Haider is not part of the picture.

There is, of course, from the Left a double standard. Jorg Haider is not acceptable as an ally but the French Communist Party is acceptable in the Socialist Government of Lionel Jospin. But [two wrongs don't make a right].

I would have expected from Navigator an article on the Far-Right resurgence in Europe: Vlaams Blok in Belgium; Jean-Marie Le Pen and Bruno Megret in France; Fini, a former secretary-general of the NSI, the Fascist Party in Italy. I would not have expected an article on Jög boys who are becoming pariahs because they got acquainted with a Far-Right politician.

The European leaders are right not to accept a government where a political party in power doesn't reject one of the worst crimes in the history of mankind-Nazism. Hitler=Chruchill is a code word for "Boys, I am one of you. You were right to be Nazis and I am so proud of you."

—Philippe Hermkens